1st Sunday of Lent (Year C, 2010)

Entrance	Led by the Spirit (Bob Hurd)
Kyrie	Mass of the Creator Spirit (Ed Nowak)
Psalm	Ps 90 (Peter Smedley)
Gospel Acclamation	Praise to you, O Christ (James Walsh)
Prayers of Intercession	Lord, in your mercy (mcb)
Preparation of the Gifts	Emendemus in Melius (William Byrd, c. 1540-1623)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	Mass XVII & Missal tones
Agnus Dei	Mass XVII
Communion	On eagles’ wings (Michael Joncas)
Recessional	Guide me, O thou great redeemer

A change in musical scenery can be a useful means of emphasising the changing liturgical seasons. For Lent we’ve got a chant Mass setting, new to our assembly. I led them through the Sanctus before the beginning of Mass, but reassured them they’d have another five weeks or so to get the hang of it. Actually I expect it will take longer – we’d sung Mass XI (Missa Orbis Factor) in Lent for two or three years before it really felt as though our singing assembly had taken it to heart.

To keep a good balance between ancient and modern, we had my arrangement of Michael Joncas’s On eagles’s wings, which sets Psalm 90(91), from which today’s responsorial Psalm and one of the Communion antiphons are drawn. The choir sang the verses (with two-part harmony for the women’s voices in verse 3) and the people joined in the refrains (with the choir adding SATB harmonies). It’s a song I like very much.

Lenten Gospel acclamations with a text such as Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ can be used effectively to acclaim the Gospel after it has been read as well as before, and we used James Walsh’s Praise to you, O Christ in just this way.